When the only reliable ferry is the one that takes you away, it says everything about the state of a lifeline – and the value placed on those who depend on it, says Herald columnist Calum Steele.

There are few things like contemplating a trip home to the Hebrides (and South Uist in particular) to test the resolve of giving up swearing for Lent. Okay, I confess I haven’t actually given up swearing for Lent, as in a world as mad as this one it would be a herculean endurance to do so, but it would be fair to say I have uttered considerably more profanities than usual as I attempted to navigate the increasingly labyrinthine pages of the Caledonian MacBrayne website just to book a ferry westward.

True to form, the sailings to South Uist are disrupted. In truth, they are cancelled, but calling them cancelled would mean the now non-existent sailings would have to feature in the creative world of CalMac reliability stats – and would shoot that most resilient of foxes trumpeted by folk who once spent an afternoon in Millport – that 95% of sailings (including the near eighty daily crossings to and from Cumbrae) are undertaken without any issues.

But here we are yet again – and it seems – yet again – that those who neither live nor are connected to South Uist have decided the island and those who call it home can be abandoned, as their ferry is removed for “vessel deployment requirements” right at the start of what should be the summer timetable season, and just in time to wreak havoc to Easter travel plans.

Read more by Calum Steele

I saw a scene like a disaster movie on my trip to South Uist

Central Belt knows best attitude leaves islanders high and dry

Is SNP incompetence........

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